Tag: Utah

First and foremost, a huge thanks goes to Mike Coronella and Joe Mitchell, the creators of this route. Their passion and vision for exploring the Colorado Plateau was groundbreaking. Such a challenging and remote route was only made possible by the information generously shared by them and others that followed in their footsteps. There are some notable mapmakers and alternate-seekers that also deserve some accolades: Jamal Green, Andrew Skurka, Li Brannfors and Nic Barth. I also benefited greatly from information contained in many blogs and videos by these intrepid hikers: Buck30, Wired, Katherine Cook, Carrot Quinn, Constantine, Plants, and Samson the Bear. Carrot appropriately described the Hayduke Route, as this: “Walk cross-country towards a canyon, over lumpy slickrock and/or sagebrush[…]

Wednesday Oct 11th-Thursday Oct 12th, 2023Total distance: 12 miles Day 1: Zion Canyon Day hiking, 2.5 miles After finishing our Buckskin/Paria hike, Worm and I headed straight back to Zion National Park (well, besides a long pit stop for AYCE pizza in Kanab). We had just enough time in the afternoon to drive to the park headquarters and take the tourist shuttle into the main canyon. On the way, we went past Checkerboard Mesa, where we’d ended our Hayduke hike a few days beforehand. We couldn’t continue to the official Hayduke terminus of the Weeping Wall because a 2018 landslide destroyed the trail. We also had a timeline to make our permitted dates for the Buckskin Gulch hike, so we[…]

Saturday, Oct 7th, 2023, 0700-1300East Fork Virgin River & Poverty Wash to HWY 9, later a visit to the Weeping Wall6 miles (this is a guess, I forgot to check) It was a lovely night and we woke to our last day on the official Hayduke route. In true Hayduke style, we had to face several more challenges, even though we only had a few miles remaining. First was braving the cold water in the morning, but this was pretty easy. I’d gotten really used to wet feet on the Hayduke and the water wasn’t all that cold. Next we had a final waterfall to bypass. I was so glad I downloaded the bypass description from Across Utah, because there[…]

Friday, Oct 6th, 2023, 0700-1830Short Creek to East Fork Virgin River & Poverty Wash 20 miles, elevation 4600′ It was a good night, warm with just a little wind, enough to keep my tent dry. It was hard to believe the 2 nights before had been so cold. We heard a motorcycle buzzing around for awhile, but fortunately it didn’t get too close. In close proximity to a town or road, getting run over in the night was my biggest worry. To begin the day’s hike, we quickly left Short Creek to climb alongside Squirrel Creek. We collected water at the bottom but need not have bothered. The second creek was flowing quite a ways up and we found tons[…]

Memorial Day weekend, May 26th- 27th, 2023Music Pass and Sand Lakes, Sangre De Cristo,10 miles, elevation 11,500 I didn’t finish the last 150 miles or so of the Hayduke (yet), and I also bypassed the route’s highpoint in the Henry mountains, due to heaps of snow. While I planned to return to the Grand Canyon to finish the western half of the route in the fall, I doubted I would get back to the Henry Mountains for just one peak bagging foray. Finding myself in Colorado with a bit of extra time after my Aunt’s memorial service, I figured I could at least gain back some style points by matching the Hayduke Highpoint: the south summit of Mt Ellen at[…]

Friday, May 12th, 2023, 0600-2030West Horseshoe Mesa to the South Rim, via South Kaibab trail 24 miles, elevation 7200′ Gazing at stars every time I woke was a grand experience. But when the quarter moon came up, it got pretty bright. With no trees or tent to block the light, even such a sliver made a big difference. I was also awoken by something crawling on my neck. I only remembered grabbing and flicking whatever it was away, then falling back asleep. It probably wasn’t a scorpion. Oddly, there were 20 or so little beetles crawling under our ground sheets in the morning, so I’d guess my nighttime visitor was one of these harmless critters. Such minor inconveniences were worth[…]

Thursday, May 11th, 2023, 0610-1800Cardenas to West Horseshoe Mesa19 miles, elevation 3865′ My little nest among the trees was so snug and complete with the loveliest of birdsong in the morning. The crash of the river waves made me think I was sleeping next to the ocean. I was dreaming that I was on a beach in the Ten Thousand Islands, instead of in the canyon. That is until I looked out to see walls and buttes all around. I left my mesh partially open since the site was pretty much mosquito free (also unlike Florida). The trail greeted us with a nice 1,500′ climb, only to go right back down to the river. We went in and out of[…]

Wednesday, May 10th, 2023, 0610-1800Nankoweap to Cardenas via raft and Beamer Trail12 miles (plus 9 miles hitched on raft), elevation 2600′ It would be hard to top the previous day, but we still managed! As I said before, I’d hiked through the GC on the AZT, but never had the pleasure of camping in the canyon before. I slept well but did wake up with a pretty bad migraine. The day before had been excellent but also tough. The heat and exertion had cooked my brain. Thankfully my prescription medicine kicked in quick and we were ready to tackle another hard day. We needed to go about 9 miles along the river where there was no trail. It would likely[…]

Tuesday, May 9th, 2023, 0610-1800Mile 21 of alt to Colorado River \ Nankoweap20 miles, elevation 2800′ It was a very quiet night and I slept so well. I think I heard a western screech owl but that was about it. We had a big day planned: to get down to the Grand Canyon! First we walked the remainder of the road to the trailhead. We found several streams along the way, filling up on beautiful clean water, all run-off from the snow melt above. We climbed towards Saddle mountain for quite a ways, which I didn’t appreciate knowing how much we’d just have to go down to get into the canyon. Must go up to go down! My pack felt[…]

Monday, May 8th, 2023, 1230-203089A & House Rock Rd jct to mile 21 of alt21 miles, elevation 5750′ We took it slow in the morning. Sky had just finished a 5 day leg through the Buckskin and lower Paria loop alternate, so understandably had a lot of errands to attend to. I chilled out and wrote some postcards. Our hunger drove us to make another run to the grocery store…I wasn’t sure if I was carrying enough food for what should be about a 5 day leg. This was dependent on getting a raft hitch across the Colorado River, so one can never be too certain. Then we set out to hitch south from town to at least Fredonia, where[…]